Posted on June 28, 2013 by Glenn Gow

Sales and marketing alignment is a fairly new term to many organizations. Traditionally, sales and marketing want nothing to do with each other. Each individual department has their own separate goals, right? Wrong.

The goal of any and all companies is revenue growth. But where and how does marketing fit in?

On this episode of Moneyball for Marketing, Kerry Langstaff, and industry leader in this area, helps me answer this question and more. Some of her key insights are:

1. Alignment is determined by clear definitions of what is a qualified lead, what is an opportunity. Sales and marketing need to make an agreement together.
2. Marketing’s goals are also based on company revenue goals. Marketing must track their contribution to revenue and sales.
3. Marketing is measurable, just include a demand generation element.

Kerry Langstaff has over 20 years of experience managing marketing for technology companies. Currently she is Vice President, Marketing at financial data provider Xignite. Before joining Xignite, Langstaff was Vice President, Demand Generation at email intelligence leader Return Path. Previously she held executive marketing positions at human resources outsourcing solutions provider TriNet and IP intelligence leader Quova. Earlier in her career, she was with 3Com (now HP), where she served for more than 10 years as a Director in charge of worldwide marketing communications programs. Langstaff also was Principal of Langstaff Communications for five years where she counted Juniper Networks, Cisco, NeoScale Systems and Symantec as clients. Ms. Langstaff earned her Bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University and is accredited in Public Relations from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). She has held board positions in the Silicon Valley chapter of the PRSA as well as the International Association of Business Communicators. Ms. Langstaff has received more than a dozen awards for her work in marketing and PR.